Nowadays various social networking sites have become the most prominent way of communication throughout the world. Though social networking is a revolution in the new era of modern technology, it also possesses some threats to society. As a young adult, my friends and I, have become more and more addicted such sites for example, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace to mention just a few.
I am in no doubt that social networking is the easiest to make the world smaller and to get connected to people around the world. But at the same time, some users are abusing various functions of these sites.
Some activities which are regarded as fun by some may result in destructive situations and cyber-crimes, for example, pornography has emerged into the social networking sites. I have an eleven year old brother with a Facebook account. I love the fact that he has an account because I like to keep in touch with him but as an older brother, instead of enjoying staying connected to my little brother, I have become more and more concerned because his use of such a site means he is exposed to such destructive things. As much as I wouldn’t want him to use this site, I cannot bear the fact that I would have to cut my connection from him and being miles and miles apart does not make it any easier.
Other than pornography, recently some cases brought up were that, the pictures one uploads on their profile can be downloaded, tempered with and then reposted without your knowledge. I have a friend whose picture was taken and used as a cover picture for a pornographic site. Surely, where are we headed as human beings?
Some might argue that my little brother at eleven years old should not even be on Facebook, but then again there is no age restriction for users. If one simply lies about their birth year, they can access these sites. Moreover, people are losing their privacy and this is utterly unacceptable.
Are social networking sites a blessing or a curse? Some tend to surf in their spare time but most of us have now made it a daily routine. Just as we eat food, breathe air or drink water, we surf these social networking sites. Nowadays even in class students surf these sites, isn’t that a curse? Teenagers surf these sites in church, isn’t that a curse? People all over the world get little sleep, if any, these days because of these sites, isn’t that a curse?
The fact that social networking sites have both advantages and disadvantages, I cannot completely say that they are either a blessing or a curse. I would lean more to the curse side than the blessing side and say that social networking sites are more of a curse than a blessing. Although people get connected easily and at a very cheap price, people become addicted to it and because of these sites, people do not have any social activities anymore. The main disadvantage of these sites for me is the exposure to illegal content, ant-social elements and wrong people especially to the younger generation.
In such circumstances, the use of social networking sites is becoming more and more questionable and a move must be made quickly to decide whether we need them or not. If we really do, which I think we do, it should be obligatory to use them sensibly.
Comments